Brad Evans becomes first Zimbabwe batter with this T20I milestone
What's the story
South Africa won the 2026 T20I Tri-Series title after defeating Zimbabwe by a huge margin of 48 runs in the final match. The game took place at Windhoek on Sunday. Batting first, South Africa set a daunting target of 205 for five. In reply, Zimbabwe struggled and were bowled out for just 157 runs. Though Brad Evans's valiant 56 went in vain, this knock powered him to a never-before-accomplished T20I milestone by a Zimbabwe player.
Match highlights
A fighting hand from Evans
Zimbabwe had a terrible start, losing four wickets for just 46 runs in the powerplay.
Evans, who came in at a precarious position with Zimbabwe reeling at 57/6, shared a 52-run partnership for the ninth wicket with Kundai Matigimu (19) and another 24-run stand with Blessing Muzarabani.
He scored an unbeaten 56 off just 31 balls with the help of four sixes and as many fours.
Milestone
Historic fifty for Evans
As per Cricinfo, Evans became the first Zimbabwe batter to score a T20I fifty while batting at eight or lower.
In fact, each of the top three scores for Zimbabwe from these positions belongs to Evans - 56*, 43, and 37.
West Indies's Romario Shepherd is the only player with more than three 35-plus T20I scores while batting at eight or lower (5).
Meanwhile, Evans became the third player after Sri Lanka's Isuru Udana (84* in 2019) and Shepherd (52* in 2026) to slam T20I fifties versus SA while batting at eight or lower.
Stats
A look at Evans's stats
Having struck his maiden fifty, Evans now owns 317 runs from 42 T20I matches (27 innings) at 15.85.
Earlier, he had also been Zimbabwe's best bowler in the match, taking two wickets for 36 runs in four overs.
With this effort, he now has 63 T20I wickets at 19.20.